Marine's mother accuses VA of covering up delays in care

A former Marine scheduled a doctor's appointment at a local VA office, but died before he could make it to the appointment. Four days after his death, though, he supposedly changed the appointment.

3PHOTOS

Marine's mother accuses VA of covering up son's death

See Gallery

Marine's mother accuses VA of covering up delays in care

Up Next

See Gallery

Discover More Like This

HIDE CAPTION

SHOW CAPTION

of

SEE ALL

BACK TO SLIDE

That's what the mother of Corporal Jordan Buisman says.

"He served honorably in the Marine Corps before being discharged due to his epilepsy," his mother, Lisa, says.

Lisa says Jordan was was forced to wait 70 days to get an appointment regarding the recent seizures he'd been having. Buisman died on November 26, 2012.

USA TODAY / KARE reports: Four days after his death, on the following Friday, November 30, someone wrote in these official VA records that Jordan Buisman cancelled his neurology appointment scheduled in late December, and, as amazing as it may seem, requested another date.

Jordan's story is, unfortunately, one of many throughout the country involving veterans and their issues with Veterans Affairs.

The issues came to a head in April 2014 when a report about the VA hospital in Phoenix indicated as many as 40 U.S. veterans died while waiting for care.

Head of the Department of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki resigned shortly after the allegations started making headlines.

CNN reported: "A few minutes ago, Secretary Shinseki offered me his own resignation. With considerable regret, I accepted," President Obama said at the time.

Although the VA has made changes and fired many staff involved in the scandal, it's also denied several claims made against it, saying long wait times weren't the primary cause of death in many cases.

In an investigation into the claims, the VA denied veterans died due to waiting for care, but instead blamed it on the quality of care.

Buisman's story about records possibly being falsified isn't a new claim either.

USA Today reports that workers at the VA Department in Fort Collins were told to falsify records so it would appear as thought doctors were seeing patients within their goal of 14 days.

KARE reports that an NYU doctor who reviewed Buisman's records said he had "more than a 50% chance he would be alive now."